LACMA Ends South Los Angeles Project to ‘De-center’ the Museum Over High Costs

LACMA has officially ended plans to establish a satellite campus at the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park in what was part of a 2017 project to “de-center” the museum and expand reach to different parts of the city. The project suffered higher costs than it had initially anticipated.

According to a staff memo published this week by the Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners, who oversee the city’s public building projects, LACMA submitted a termination agreement on the project to their office in July. The agreement took effect on September 12.

The proposed site, termed under the agreement as Building 71, spans 84,000-square-feet and was previously operated as a public transit facility. The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners report stated that engineering studies conducted as part of the plan “have shown that the cost to repair and retrofit Building 71 will far exceed what LACMA had initially estimated.” In 2017, Michael Govan’s president estimated the project to cost $25 million.

LACMA had planned for the satellite campus to serve as an additional storage and exhibition space for its 150,000-item collection pieces. Meanwhile, a partnership approved by Govan to lend portions of the museum’s collection and installations to the forthcoming Las Vegas Museum of Art are moving forward. Architects for the Nevada project were announced this month and the $150 million museum complex is expected to open in 2028.